First Visitor Jailed In HK For Breaking Quarantine

A businessman visiting Hong Kong was sentenced on Monday to four weeks in prison for breaking a quarantine order amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Deepak Kumar, 31, arrived in the SAR from Turkey on March 21 and was required to stay at a hotel in Aberdeen for a two-week quarantine period.

But he attempted to leave Hong Kong via the Shenzhen Bay border on March 22 and was intercepted by immigration officials.

Kumar pleaded guilty at Kwun Tong Magistracy to leaving his place of quarantine without obtaining permission from an authorised officer.

He was the first non-Hong Kong resident to be prosecuted under a new quarantine law for arrivals from overseas which took effect on March 19.

In mitigation, Kumar's lawyer said the software businessman mistakenly thought that a document he received from the Home Affairs Department gave him permission to leave Hong Kong.

The lawyer said his client was sorry for the inconvenience he had caused.